The Apostle John, towards the end of his life, he has perhaps another ten years remaining of his long life, but by now all the other apostles have passed away. In fact, many of the first believers in Jesus have all gone to glory. Fifty years or so have passed since Jesus ministered publicly in Jerusalem and Galilee and Judea. 50 years since his death on the cross, providing for his people an atoning sacrifice for his sins. 50 years since God demonstrated his acceptance of that sacrifice by raising him again from the dead on the third day. 50 years since he had ascended into heaven, 50 years in which he has been ruling over all things for the good of the church. But 50 years, as you know, is a long time. 50 years is a long time for a church today. A lot can happen in 50 years. A lot of change can take place in 50 years. And it's not just in the 20th and 21st century that lots of change has taken place in the church. Indeed, in the first century, great changes were taking place. Changes that were not for the good. changes that had brought error into the church, changes that had brought confusion to those who professed to be followers of Jesus Christ. And so John takes up his pen to write to a church that desperately needs some help and guidance, a church that needs to know How can it be sure that it is holding fast to the truth? How can it discern between truth and error? How can it know that it is walking in the ways of God? And so John writes this letter that we have been studying now for a while, and we have already observed that though this letter at first reading can seem to be fragmented and bitty, in fact it has a theme to it. The theme, of course, is that of assurance of salvation. That is his great desire. He wants the people to whom he's writing, whom he is assured in his own heart are true believers in Jesus Christ, he wants them also to have the assurance that they are the people of God. He says in verse 13 of chapter 5, for example, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That is his great desire. And as he does so, he unfolds for them three themes. And these themes recur. They are repeated over and over and over again in this letter. That's why it appears to be a somewhat fragmented and bitty letter. He's not like the Apostle Paul, who begins at chapter 1 and verse 1 and works systematically through his arguments till a grand climax followed by practical application. Now, John is more circular in his thinking, and he ponders over a topic, and then that gives him an idea of something else, and he thinks about that for a while, which leads him into something else, and he thinks about that for a while, and then something, as he's thinking about that, leads him back to the first point, or perhaps to the second point, and so he thinks some more about that. Well, that's how this first letter unfolds. And as we've gone through it, we've observed that there are these three ideas, these three themes that John keeps coming back to. They're all related to the grand theme, the grand topic of assurance of salvation. How can people in the church be sure that they are right with God? And he says that there are these three key elements to being sure that they are right with God. One of those things, it's not actually the first thing that he addresses, but it is foundational to the others. The first thing is the truth. It matters what we believe. You see, there were false teachers that come into the church. Well, actually, more realistically, we would have to say false teachers had gone out of the church. People who had once been a part of the church and developed new ideas had left the church and were now proclaiming these ideas as the truth. And John says, what they are saying and what you heard from the beginning, the message that they are now proclaiming and the message that first brought you to a conviction of sin and faith in Jesus Christ, these two messages are different. And these two messages stand in opposition to one another. What they believe And what the apostles believed are diametrically opposed to one another. And John says, it matters what you believe. The truth matters. Now one of the things that they were teaching was with regard to who Jesus was. He expands on it in chapter 2 and verse 19 and following, he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us, but if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. They went out that it might become plain that they are not of us. And he goes on and he says, I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?" What he's saying is, look, you Christians that I'm writing to, you know what the truth is. You know the truth because you heard the message that was given to you from the beginning. You embraced that message. You set your hope upon that message. And because you know the truth, you will be able to discern the false. And what is it that these false teachers are teaching? They are denying that Jesus is the Christ. It matters, you see, what we believe about Jesus. It matters who Jesus is, and it matters what Jesus has done. And we're going to come back to that in a moment because in verses 1 to 6 of chapter 4, He's come back to that particular theme of the three themes that recur in this letter. So that's one of the themes, and we're going to be focusing on it this morning. But let me just, because a number of you are visiting us this morning, and others of you have forgotten what we looked at eight weeks and more ago, so let me just remind you what the other two things are that matter. The other two things are the way that we behave. our moral lifestyles. What these false teachers were saying was, we can have fellowship with God regardless of how we live our lives. It doesn't matter what I do, it doesn't matter how I behave, we can have fellowship with God. You see, their ideas would a little later on in the history of the church become more concrete and would become known as Gnostic teaching, an element of which was a separation, a distinction between spiritual life and physical life. What they argued was, is it's the spiritual life that matters, the physical life is nothing. Some would even go so far as to say, the spiritual is good and the physical is evil. And what they were teaching was, what you do with your bodies has no effect upon your relationship with God. You can go out and you can commit adultery, it doesn't matter, because you do that with your body. As long as your spirit is in fellowship with God, you are okay. And that was the first idea that John presents to these people. He says, if we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Now you can see why I said the truth. What we believe is foundational, you see. We need to know the truth. We need to believe the truth because it will affect the way that we live. We need to understand that what we believe is of vital importance, but we also need to understand that how we behave is of vital importance. We need to be morally upright, not walking in darkness, but walking in the light of the law of God. Now John then takes that idea a step further and he narrows it down to a particular realm of behaviour, a particular focus of the way that we behave. And he focuses in on the way that believers behave towards one another within the church. He says, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever says, I know the truth, whoever says, I have fellowship with God, but hates his brother, doesn't know the truth, does not have fellowship with God. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in darkness, doesn't know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. So there are these three themes. What you believe matters. how you behave matters, and how you relate to others in the body of Christ, how you relate to others in the church matters. And he uses these three themes as tests, if you like, of whether someone is really a Christian. Do they believe the right things? Do they behave in the right way? Do they love other people for whom Jesus Christ laid down his life? All three must be present for someone to be able with assurance to say, I know God, I have fellowship with God. If any one of those is absent, and more likely than not all three will be absent, but even if one of those were absent, then there would be reason to question. I don't need to repeat what we've looked at in detail in these earlier chapters, but I'm sure even as you're thinking about those three themes, you must be thinking to yourself, well, can anyone do that? Can anyone be sure that they fully understand the truth? that they are fully behaving in a right way and particularly in relationships in the body of Christ. And of course the answer must be that none of us are. And so, while John presents these three tests, as he repeatedly comes back to these three themes, mixed in amongst it all is the encouragement that our assurance of salvation is not based upon what we are doing, but is based upon what Christ has done for us. In other words, yes, we must strive to understand the truth of the word of God, because what we believe matters. Yes, we must strive to be obedient to the moral law of God, because how we behave matters. And we must exert ourselves strenuously and sacrificially loving one another in the church, because how we behave to our brothers and sisters for whom Christ gave his life matters. But we will never believe perfectly, and we will never behave perfectly, and we will never love perfectly. So all the time, as we're striving ourselves in these areas, we must recognize our complete and total dependence upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is by His blood that we receive cleansing. It is by His death that the wrath of God against us is appeased. And it is by His life that we have any hope of life with God. Now we come to the fourth chapter and these six verses, which focus on this foundational theme that recurs in this letter, the truth matters. And because the truth matters, John says, beloved, do not believe every spirit. but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." He gives them this exhortation, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits. The idea here is that there is a spiritual influence that breathes out the message that the people are hearing. So we could, I guess, translate it as, do not believe every message. but test the messages to see whether they are from God. We are looking to see, to understand whether a person who professes to be proclaiming a message from God is actually from God or has some other influence directing them. Are they from God or are they a false prophet, a false messenger? This is the first point that we need to recognize. There is a reason for testing the spirits. This isn't just an arbitrary command that John is thinking to himself, now what can I tell these people to do? I ought to give them a few instructions on what they need to do in the church. Well, there's one. Let them test every spirit. No, there's a reason. The reason for testing every spirit is because the truth matters. It's because what we believe matters. And it's because not everyone is speaking the truth. Not everyone is speaking the truth. This is the reality of spiritual warfare in this world. The New Testament tells us that Satan prowls all around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That's how he appears. But you know, Satan is the master of disguise. And he may be a roaring lion, but he comes as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Here we are, I'm mixing metaphors. He comes disguised. He may be a roaring lion, but he doesn't reveal himself as a roaring lion. The prince of darkness presents himself as an angel of light. The one who is the father of lies presents himself as the messenger of truth. And that is why these people need to be on their guard. Error is creeping into the church, because there are those who have not understood the truth, there are those who have twisted the gospel message, there are those who have denied the person and work of Jesus Christ, who nevertheless present their beliefs as gospel. Listen to us, hear us, follow us, and you will still be right with God. You will still be safe for eternity. The Spirit of God operates through men that he has called in order to convey truth of God to the church. Fundamentally, the Spirit of God worked in the apostles, bringing the revelation that we call the New Testament, and delivering that to the church. But where the genuine Spirit of God was working through the apostles, the Spirit of Satan was equally active, attempting to deceive. There is only a need for a counterfeit when something is of immense value. A counterfeit $100 note is only of value because there's a real $100 note. Is there a $100 note in New Zealand? I don't remember. Never possessed one anyway. But in America, I was given a $100 note. So there we go. $100 bill in America. A count of it would only be of value if there's a real thing. I remember years ago, I worked for a Christian organization in the UK. and we would get, we published Bibles and we would get requests from Africa for Bibles and usually they would ask for Bibles free of charge but occasionally we would get a letter asking for Bibles and enclosed in it would be a $100 note, America. And a number of times this happened and every time I took it to the bank I knew exactly what they would say. This isn't real. But why did they bother even attempting to send it? Because there is a real thing. There is a real hundred dollar note that does have value, that is worth something. Well, in this spiritual realm then, Satan seeks to deceive those who love God. Satan seeks to deceive those who are inquiring into the truth of God. Satan, right since the beginning of creation, has sought to undermine God's work and God's purposes out of his own deviousness and hatred of God. And he does it because he knows that there is a genuine message of value being proclaimed by the influence of the Spirit of God. And John says, because of this reality, we need to test the spirits, to discern what spirit is at work. This is not to cultivate a judgmental attitude where we're constantly trying to dot the i's and cross the t's of our theology and ensure that everyone else dots the i's and crosses the t's in exactly the same way and place as we do. Now what John is concerned about isn't the fact that there may be disagreements as to some of the details. He's concerned about fundamentals. Of course, these are the early days of deception coming into the church. These are days when it is the grand truths of the gospel that are being undermined. Today there are many things that genuine Christian believers, sons and daughters of the living God who share a common faith in Jesus Christ may have disagreements on. John is not talking about those kinds of things, he is talking about the big issues. And so that leads me to the second point. The first is the reason for the exaltation to test the spirits. The reason. Because the spiritual warfare is a reality. The second point is the rubric or the rule or the method for testing the spirits. As I said, we're not looking for 100% agreement on every point of doctrine before we will recognize someone else as a brother or sister in Christ. That is not what we are attempting to do. But here's how John puts it in verses 2 and 3. By this you know the Spirit of God. This is how you will know whether a preacher is proclaiming under the influence of the Spirit of God or under a false spirit. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world. So we're back in the theme that was introduced first of all in chapter two, the idea of the Antichrist, the idea of false teaching that is centered upon who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. There we're told that they denied that Jesus is the Christ. Here we're told that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. Now that phrase in the first part of the test, the positive test, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, that's the positive test. The phrase there could be translated and probably better translated every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh. Now, the Greek can be translated either way. It can be translated, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, or Jesus is the Christ who has come in the flesh. The way it's translated in the ESV which I'm using is somewhat redundant. whereas the alternative translation that I'm suggesting to you makes the point that these are people who recognize that there is a man, Jesus of Nazareth, but deny that he is the Son of God. They deny that he is the Christ and that he is the Son of God incarnate. He is the Christ come in the flesh. Some of these false teachers taught that the Spirit of God came upon the man, Jesus of Nazareth, at his baptism and departed from the man, Jesus, just before his crucifixion. So that Jesus, the physical man, Jesus, is not actually God. He just became a a temple for God for a while during the earthly ministry. That all fits in with the idea that the flesh, the physical is evil and the spiritual is good. John is saying It is the spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Christ who has come in the flesh, who is from God. That was a fundamental teaching of the gospel right from the beginning. And John repeatedly in this letter is pointing his readers back to what they first heard, the gospel that they first heard. that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we looked upon and our hands have touched concerning the word of life that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you John says right at the beginning of this letter and all over and over again he is reminding his readers this is what you first heard that God became flesh and dwelt among us that God took on himself humanity, that he might properly represent humanity before the throne of God, that he might take upon himself the sins of his people, though he himself was undeserving of death because of his perfect righteousness. The substitute for sinners had to be a proper substitute, a right substitute. He had to be a man, a man who had perfectly obeyed the law of God and therefore did not incur penalty of death, but stood in the place of others to bear the wrath of God. And so when John, as I've repeatedly said, when John speaks about confessing Jesus Christ or denying Jesus Christ, it isn't simply a matter of confessing that there was a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, or even confessing that there was a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, who was in reality God incarnate. No, when John talks about confessing Jesus or denying Jesus, he's talking about the whole package. He's saying that those who confess Jesus confess that he is God incarnate who lived a perfect life as a human being and died a substitutionary death on the cross in the place of his people. And those who deny Jesus deny any or all of the aspects of Christ's person and work. You see, these are ideas that are fundamental to the gospel message. It matters what you believe. Therefore, it matters who you believe. It matters what message you listen to. We must test. the spirits. We must evaluate the message. Is the person proclaiming the truth? Are they proclaiming the truth about Jesus, about who he is, and about what he has done? If they deny any aspect of it, then I will not listen to them. They are a false prophet, they are a false teacher, and their message will lead to damnation, not to life. Test the spirits, because there's spiritual warfare going on. Test the spirits by looking to see what the messenger says about Jesus. Is Jesus central to their message? Is his person and work consistent with the original message preached by the apostles taught by Jesus himself. If it is, then you can follow their teaching. If it is not, then they must be rejected. And then the third thing that I want to say this morning is the reality that is at work when this testing of the spirits takes place. We've seen the reason for it, spiritual warfare necessitates a testing of the spirits. We've seen the rubric, the method for testing the spirits. Is Jesus Christ central? Is his person and work properly taught? And the reality that is taking place, the dynamic that is taking place as this testing is undertaken is seen in verses four through six. John says, little children You are from God. They are from the world. We are from God. Well, he says more than that in those three verses, I know. Let us look at them a little more closely. You are from God, he says to his readers. Now, we've already observed let me remind those of you who've heard it before and tell those of you who haven't, that John is writing to people that he in his own heart and mind is convinced are true followers of Jesus Christ, okay? So, he is specifically writing as chapter 5 verse 13 says, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. He is writing to people that he is convinced are true believers. He's not writing to the broader church in which he recognizes there are true believers and there are false believers. He's specifically addressing those who are true believers and he says to them, little children, you are from God. And what does he say about them? And have overcome them, who is the them? Well, the false teachers. You are from God, and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. What John is referring to is their conversion. He's referring to the point at which, by the grace of God, they were able to distinguish the truth of the gospel. It is because they are from God. It is because there is someone in them. who is greater than the one who is in the world. The Spirit of God dwells in them. It is because of that reality that they were ever able to believe the Gospel in the first place. It is because of the Spirit of God working in them that they were ever able to recognize who Jesus was, the incarnate Son of God, and understand the work that Jesus had done. as a substitutionary sacrifice in their place. Only those with the Spirit of God will accept the Spirit's teaching, and only those with the Spirit of God will reject false teaching. Paul goes into some detail on that topic in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It is the spirit that leads us into the wisdom of God, to know God, to understand God, at least in measure. And he's, John says to his readers, little children, you are from God. You have overcome the deceivers because of him who is in you. That's a great encouragement for them. The fact that they embrace the gospel is evidence that the Spirit has worked in them. In contrast, he says, they are from the world. These false teachers are from the world, they're not from God. and this is what he says about them, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. What John is saying is the whole message of these false teachers is governed by ideas, ideologies, philosophies that the world can accept. They are ideas, they are philosophies that doesn't challenge the sinful human nature. It doesn't call on people to humble themselves and to acknowledge that everything that they've thought and everything that they've done has been wrong and that they deserve the wrath of God. In some way or another, these false teachings will pander to human desires. There'll be a pat on the back or they will present Salvation as something to be worked for, as something to be earned, as something to be achieved, so that it's something that I do, rather than something that God graciously has done for me. And in one way or another, these false teachers will present a message that the world will love. that the world will embrace, that the world will find acceptable, palatable. They are from the world, they speak from the world, the world listens to them. They don't say anything that really upsets the world. They don't say anything that puts the world on edge. They don't say anything that would draw from the world animosity or hatred because it runs counter-cultural to all that they think and believe. No, false teachers, they'll have a large following. False teachers will have people lapping up every word that they say. Don't be surprised by that, John is saying. Expect it. He said earlier, don't be surprised if the world hates you. Expect it. They don't like what you believe, they don't like what you stand for, they will hate you. They love these false teachers because they don't mind what they stand for, they don't mind what they're proclaiming. It doesn't hurt them, it doesn't harm them, it doesn't call them to account. You are from God. and the evidence of the Spirit's work in your life has been demonstrated because you have rejected the deceivers and you have embraced the gospel. They are from the world and it's evident because the world accepts their message and doesn't oppose them. And we are from God, John concludes. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. Now, John here may be speaking inclusively, he may be speaking broadly, saying, we, that is me, and you, we are from God. Or he may be speaking exclusively, more narrowly, in which case he's referring to himself and the other apostles. For they were given the Spirit in a special way through whom God revealed his plan of salvation is presented for us in our New Testament. Jesus promised specifically to the apostles that they would be given the Spirit and he would lead them into the truth. He would remind them of the things that Jesus had taught them. Now, which one of us can say, the Spirit reminds me of things that Jesus taught me? Did you walk with Jesus down the lanes of Judea? Did you sit with him in the upper rooms of Jerusalem? No, there is a special sense in which that prediction of Jesus Christ is fulfilled in the apostles. The foundation, along with the prophets of the Old Testament, the foundation of the Church, they are the ones through whom the scriptural revelation is given. And what John is saying very forcefully then is, we, the apostles, are from God, whoever knows God listens to us. They'll listen to Peter, they'll take up his writings and embrace what he has to say, they'll listen to Paul, they'll listen to me, because we are from God. And that becomes a test for us then. Are the people who we listen to proclaiming the truth that has been delivered to us by the apostles, inscripturated in the New Testament, This becomes our test then of the truth. This is our way of understanding a false teacher from a true teacher. And in that sense then, we can say that we can understand this in the broader sense. I think specifically it's intended in the narrower sense, but it has application in its broader sense that we are from God if we proclaim the truth delivered to us through the apostles. And so let me give you three examples of people that we should not listen to because they don't fit this description. We should not listen to, for example, the Mormons, because they have added to the book that has been delivered to us through the prophets and the apostles, their own book, often contradictory to it, and very often not spiritually aligned to it, if I can use that term. It contradicts it. It doesn't have the same ethos to it. They've added to it. Neither should we listen to the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses, for example. Why? Well, because they've adapted the Scriptures. Isn't it interesting that they, of all the groups in the world, have decided that they have to have their own version of the New Testament that corrects all the errors that every other Bible believer through the ages has understood? and believed. It's a test, you see. We do not listen to them because they do not stand upon the teaching of the apostles. Neither do we listen to the liberals. They haven't added to the scriptures their own book of teaching, neither have they adapted the scriptures, re-translating it to fit their philosophies, but they certainly deny the Scriptures, they deny the virgin birth of Jesus, they deny the resurrection of Christ, they deny key doctrines that are delivered to us by the apostles. Well those are just three examples of ways in which we today can evaluate and remove ourselves from the teachings of those who are false. it doesn't fit with the truth that has been delivered to us, the truth concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. You see, everything hangs upon our view of Christ. Our relationship to the Father, to God, if you like, hangs on Jesus Christ. Chapter 2 tells us that. The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ is the Antichrist. He denies the Father and the Son. He denies the Father because the Father declares that the Son is the Christ. By denying the Son, they deny the Father. Well, here in this passage, a denial of the person and work of Christ is a denial of the Spirit of God. For the Spirit confesses who Christ is, declares who Christ is and what Christ has done. Any denial of the teaching of the Spirit is a denial of the Spirit himself. So everything hangs upon our view of Christ. Our relationship to God the Father, our relationship to the Holy Spirit is dependent upon our view of who Jesus is and what he has done. And of course, of utmost importance, our very salvation depends upon our view of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not God incarnate, then we cannot trust a single word of any of this book, which both predicted the incarnation of the Son of God in the Old Testament, and explained it and explores it in the New Testament. If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God in the flesh, then his sacrifice upon the cross is like the death of any other man, and it cannot avail us anything. If Jesus Christ is not God incarnate, God in the flesh, then we are lost and dead in our sins and there is no hope for us. The Gospel depends upon this truth and therefore we must shun anyone who would teach something contrary to what the Scriptures teach. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Listen to them, and you imperil your soul. Avoid them, embrace the teachings of the apostles, and you stand in the spirit of life and truth.